million degrees with some talk so much fuel to sell something peaceful to front we travel in search of the sun. would you believe the future. cash for rebels the us president bush's congress to call a billion dollars in aid for syrian opposition fighters to help train them and provide equipment. ukraine's president signs a trade deal with the e.u. along with the leaders of georgia and moldova it's the very same agreement which ignited the favoring revolution an armed conflict in ukraine's the findings. just won't fly by a long delay in opening a calamitous five billion dollar a port in blamed on the fake engineer given a key role in the project. from

a new center here in moscow twenty four hours a day you're watching r t international i'm going to know neil. rebels engaged in war with the syrian president are in line for a half billion dollar windfall from the u.s. president obama has asked congress to approve the money the aid also wanes to counter the radical islamist group isis which is also fighting assad and terrorizing cities in neighboring iraq are. the possible dangers of washington's multi-tasking. the obama administration is requesting for lawmakers to approve five hundred million dollars in spending for the purpose of arming the syrian opposition the white house claims that only appropriate vetted elements of the moderate opposition would receive direct training from the u.s. military and be equipped with american weapons and ammunition u.s. officials insist that the weapons would serve to empower the syrian people and help

them push back against the government as well as the militant extremist group isis which actually has been fighting to topple bashar assad since the civil war began more than three years ago however as recent events have shown american weapons may very well end up in its enemies hands just two weeks ago isis an all out assault on iraq's second largest city mosul causing a reported thirty thousand iraqi soldiers who were trained by the u.s. military to turn around and run as a result sunni extremists have seized stockpiles of american weapons and ammunition as well as u.s. humvees the bloodshed being unleashed in iraq by isis has arguably been strengthened by the fact that militants are fighting with u.s. weapons in afghanistan the taliban is now armed with u.s. made stinger missiles which according to reports were originally sent to libya when the obama administration was arming the opposition rising up against former leader moammar gadhafi for more than a decade the u.s. has been drowning the arab world in weapons arming locals to help them overthrow

governments not only how is it created absolute chaos and bloodshed it is arguably help to strengthen terrorist organizations because the weapons at least some of them are ending up in the hands of the enemy as for syria the devastating civil war has killed some one hundred fifty thousand people and the international community does agree that something should be done question is is sending weapons to one side of the conflict which includes terrorists the best solution reporting from washington d.c. marina. artane. washington's constantly change this mind and how to help the rebels in syria it was over a year ago when the u.s. first approved direct non lethal aid in december twenty third it was suspended after american supplied equipment fell into the hands of islamist fighters although early this year the wife heist confirmed it has actually been sending lethally to

the syrian opposition campaigner brian bakker sees the u.s. is split when it comes to taking sides in civil conflicts it shows the united states appears to have a schizo front foreign policy there they're saying they demand unity in iraq behind the central government which is fighting what they call islamic extremist from isa's and at the same time they're funding these same armed groups in syria to take down an independent nationalist and sovereign government in syria what the u.s. is doing and has been doing this finally in money guns and more occupation tools in a region that it considers to be vital because it's resource rich that's about it now inside syria there are ten million people in need of humanitarian assistance that's according to the latest u.n. assessments that's indeed almost half the country's population artie's refinished reports from one city where people are now returning to their homes after the syrian army took it from armed rebels. police road in central syria used to be

beset by snipers and anyone driving here could be kidnapped thus when the smallest western area known as the moon was controlled by on drug the toll your brother next to the syrian lebanese border is just eighty kilometers from the capital damascus but it is like a state within a state that has its own security forces police and even the army can see its symbols of new authorities here everywhere graffiti or three stars that means free syrian army is controlling this area a syrian military cannot enter six months later return. remains well if you. refuse the syrian army expect town after months of fierce battles and numerous offensives. officers say i can take off my flak jacket my dear friend. it's friday today and the officers tell us that say all the shops are closing the restaurants a close eye roll out so

a lot of people on the streets but there is another reason actually many residents fled this town and entire area of cologne in an attempt to escape from atrocities. at the city's mosque the heart of this predominantly muslim town friday prayers have just finished. most of these people who only returned to their town recently for the hot outside. my home was hit and destroyed thank god the army is now back to mood is also home to a big christian community a different face he used to live in harmony here for years until islamic rule was imposed by the rebels many being religious zealots some linked to al-qaeda or free syrian mostly officially they were religious groups jihadi islam is but in fact it was no religion or anything else their religion was money and oh look this young

man shows us what used to be a jewelry shop it was looted and then set on fire. although with luck made or bouyeri they were on motorbikes they call themselves the free syrian army they used to also take food coming to town from damascus often they were also kidnapping people locals hope the dog days a gun just a week after we left the town attacked the army positions in the region again several other areas across syria still remain held by rebels or jihadists it seems that despite the army's recent success it's still too early to say when this devastating war will be over. raef nationality from syria. moving on now ukraine has entered a trade agreement with the e.u. the very deal that started events that saw the previous administration toppled and ultimately led to the ongoing bloody standoff in the country's east president petro

poroshenko signed the association pact in brussels and say he believes this is the way to carry out the will of the nation. the people demanding european future very clear every single region of ukraine support one candidate demonstrating we are a different form we are ready for europe we are ready for peace with ukraine there appears to be little support for kiev the self-proclaimed republics of the nats and lugansk with a population of over six million are refusing to recognize the new leaders and are openly critical of their european ambitions over three hundred fifty people have been killed two hundred fifty seven of them civilians since kiev launched its military operation against the defined eastern regions the week long since fire that's been broken several times by the army and local militia expires today and the russian president has called for it to be extended. blood is being shared in the southeast of ukraine real humanitarian catastrophe is underway tens of

thousands of refugees are forced to seek asylum in russia ukraine needs to return to the path of peace dialogue and consent their president has said if another round of talks with these fields today kiev will take a quote very important step and an of identity political commentator from e.u. reporter magazine believes the ukrainian leader has little interest in bringing peace and stability to eastern regions. it shows already a lot of neglect towards the situation in the east south of here craig so far he doesn't pay attention he doesn't invest in the south and that is the result because the ideas he was chosen as far as that sort of general can do that all the west's all the european union and the united states and he fulfill his promise and he signs the green mint and basically he doesn't care what happens afterwards because as we know during elections he invested his own seven million fortune to become

a president so you can't expect him as a genuine caring about his people he's definitely not he's a career businessman who cares about his own good ok let's see you know why aligning with the you appear so attractive for kiev and where the couch could lie the deal will remove tartus on almost all goods traded between europe ukraine on europe but if it meets e.u. standards which it does not off the moment i will have to spend about one hundred billion dollars in order to do so winning a place of the european table ukraine will no longer be russia's prime preferential partner and will lose five hundred billion dollars in trade global financial markets expert pumphrey young believes the association deal with the e.u. is a grave mistake. ukraine which last year was in a catastrophic position how that signed a free trade association this year is going to associate with the european union out the point when it's on the brink already of economic disaster this is

a catastrophic move for the ukrainian economy the only winners either this or a few sadly deluded egos whether they're in brussels whether they're in washington who believe some horror other they've achieved a great deal of political victory for the people of ukraine there are no jobs to be hired here there's only going to be job losses there is no economic growth to be hired by suddenly having western european goods dumped at little cost onto your marketplace this deal is a disaster it's a very very tragic day for the people of ukraine who want to improve their economic outlook. those in ukraine supporting the association agreement with the you have high hopes for the deal but not everything european ukrainians are hoping for is on the table right now although brussels promises ukraine a visa free travel will happen but that is not mentioned in the association agreement the freedom of employment with in the e.u.

is only for member states and there's no actual guarantee of eventual e.u. membership. and as for europeans who are still bearing the burden of a stereotype they're not really into expanding their union right they blocks energy commissioner warns that be like for greece's peanuts compared to the billions brussels would have to cough up to save ukraine's ailing economy now the president of the european commission says the e.u. is not ready to integrate a country like ukraine at this stage that sentiment is also echoed by the foreign minister of europe's power heists germany. next they british monarchy has enjoyed why public support for many decades but do mirror commoners actually know how much the crime is costing them according to the latest a new report almost thirty six million pounds is spent last year to support the royal family but there are some hidden price tags most of the public are completely on aware of as rina cost revenue reports. over eighty percent of britons believe

the royal family brings in a significant amount of revenue for the country each year some five hundred million pounds according to the case national tourism agency but those have been campaigning for the abolition of the monarchy believe that figure is incorrect and they're ready to show british taxpayers just how much of their money really goes towards funding live oils their public group claims the estimated annual cost of the monarchy is almost three hundred million pounds which is around nine times the official figure published by the of oil household why this disparity apparently the official figure excludes a number of costs including security royal visits and lost revenue from the dutch cheese of lang castor and cornwall if there were public figures are to be believed it would mean the british head of state is one of the most expensive government institutions in the world the important point is that they want to cost us a lot more than many people think it costs but even if those figures were made public there's every chance of the majority of the british public would agree that

about it he was still worthwhile in fact a poll last year found that forty five percent of the british public strong support for the monarchy up from twenty seven percent in two thousand and six a survey released this month showed that prince william his grandmother and his father are all more popular than the country's top rights of politicians remember the crowds for will's wedding but more people are now saying not having the option to choose who benefits from taxpayers' money is also important so there's also a principle of democracy about whether it's right that the head of state should be . ready to treat position rather than one's chosen by the people and it's also a question of the message it sends to the young people growing up in this country i would rather that the young people growing up in this country were told that no matter who you are no matter where you're born matter who your parents are you can rise to the highest office in the land and that would be the case is going to have a retrieve even though. most brits love their queen there's

a growing number of those who would like to see their money go towards improving the country rather than the country's palaces marina costs of a reporter from london forty. over eighteen million pines is spent on keeping the royals fade properly maintained that equals to two thousand pensions more than thirty million pints cool towards keeping the royal palace suspect and spawn could provide four hundred forty students with scholarships and the money spent on the family's travel costs could feed more than thirty three hundred homeless people republican graham smith believes the royals are an insult to people suffering from a star ety whether the spending by the world family is going up even by their own official figures it's going up you know they spend four million pounds. renovating a house for prince william. no the public does not owe these people a living it doesn't owe them a house and they need to start cutting by tens of millions not increasing their

income and their wealth whilst we are cutting public services and public jobs government simply hands over millions of pounds to the world in the world then get to choose how they spend it. and then report on how they've spent it themselves countering it and a lot of spin. and misinformation of course if you look to other countries in europe they have similar heads of state fraction of the price so the republic of ireland for example they get to choose their head of state does a similar ceremonial job and they cost less than ten million pounds every year so clearly. having had to stay for three hundred million pounds it's a bit of a nonsense. still to come few this hour the world turns a blind eye to thaw agents of african refugees held captive in the sinai peninsula . are melting plastic bags joining it in their mad so this is. an issue really activists try to drum up support for her campaign by putting the

terror of human trafficking and torture up on the screen more details still ahead. there's a media lead also we believe that maybe. by the same motion security for your party there's a bill. for shoes that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from. politics only on our t.v. . choose your language killing the kid with no influential plan to stay still some of the. treatments that the consensus can. choose to give to us that immigrate to. choose the stories that impact the money. choose the access to offer to.

cut. come back now first scheduled for takeoff in twenty ten the opening of the third largest airport in germany has still not happened the least poor construction and corruption scandals have plagued the project from the very beginning peter all reports on want or rather who is behind the airport's bad karma. at this time of the airport should be bustling with holiday makers jetting off for their summer

vacations not here though at berlin brandenburg the airport's two years behind schedule the only people the construction work is still working on the project with costs spiraling out of control it's really become a comedy of errors the latest scandal involves the fire safety system moreover the man that designed it it's a merge they didn't have any qualifications to be in a position to do so what he did have though was a business card that said that he was an engineer turns out that wasn't worth the paper that it was written on but how does a man with no qualifications find himself in a very important position on a multibillion euro project to find out more on this i'm joined by steve from the party of reason safe flying a business card that said i was an astronaut would that mean i got to go into space quite likely for it was the space agency was run by the same people that are running this airport wouldn't surprise me at all what's going on here what's happening with this project right now cost overruns without end technical disasters

political decisions being made and in my opinion it's probably due to the fact that government agencies bureaucrats are trying to make a huge project which should have been better left off to a private consortium to build as it was initially intended to be i mean we don't even know when this airports could open next year no sixteen seventeen maybe eighteen maybe never who knows thank you very much there we go we don't know when it's going to open some estimates of put a final cost of around ten billion euro on finally getting this airport brandenburg open it certainly hasn't gone smoothly here. and i first thought of african refugees the search for a better life in israel ends up in torture camps set off by human traffickers in the sinai peninsula more than three thousand migrants per month come from eritrea alone many of them are kidnapped for ransom and tortured until their families pay if they don't human traffickers reportedly killed the hostages more than four

thousand people are estimated to have been killed since two thousand and eight and around a thousand are thought to be in captivity right now and last month the president for tria demanded an investigation but the international community has remained largely silent with israel in particular ignoring the problem on its own doorstep the pharmacist a swedish eritrean activist to try to read as awareness about the victims of torture by putting their plight on screen. the american plastic bags dropping it in their bags this is. the mission of. iran estefan must talk to a nice and now way on in the now she says there's

a big difference in the way captives are treated. i have seen kids children that are two years old being tortured there were some kids have to watch their mother being burned alive and they survived so this was the kind of people that i talk to the torture is it's not any as of tortured like you see horror movie or something it's where people are tortured twenty four hours a day deprived deprived of food deprived how is there not more international weirdness about what's happening in finite the amount of deaths the type of torture and the millions of dollars that have been made by these hostage takers who. also have to do is race you know we we have seen americans getting kidnapped in the sinai. it took only twenty four hours to release them last year not only gentlewomen was kidnapped in the same area and it took about a week for her to be released. we've seen last year also an israeli man being

kidnapped and also took a few days for him to be released so this happens all quite often to westerners as well but they're out with the base and they don't get to experience the torture as a free country so it has to do is was race. stories from around the world now we start with iraq where government forces have retaken control of the biology oil refinery from isis extremist despite conflicting reports that militant forces are poised to take the whole society or production house remain largely unaffected by the current fighting over all commodities reached a nine month high in trading over the last week. clashes between police and protesters continue in berlin despite earlier arrests hundreds form blockades to prevent the eviction of refugees living in a former school where the asylum seekers remain in the building that has been occupied for more than eighteen months.

a lot of trust in the world by the i.m.f. has led china to a stop bitch it's very own rival global financial institution beijing is starting with one hundred billion dollars in capital and aims to overtake a similar project in the region which is highly influenced by japan so far twenty two countries have shown interest in the new lender including some rich states in the middle east but china says it would go ahead with the ambitious project even if no one else joins up one of the first tasks will be setting up a new version of the ancient silk road connecting the country to europe and china expert professor lead believes beijing is right to fund its own projects i think that this is just a further extension of what china's been doing china has come from pretty much a backwater country thirty years ago to now this world's second largest economy and

china is basically showing the world that if there is a will there is a way china has been somewhat frustrated with the world bank and development bank in terms of. the funds coming out of these energies to support infrastructure projects so china i think basically decided that if they want anything done here they're just going to have to fund that themselves and bring along a bunch of partners so i think that's the prime motivation it's largely to expand their trade and economic influence. larry king is here after the break discussing violence in iraq with a former marine before thursday with. the

federal migration service of russia has recently received more than five thousand requests for political silence from ukraine and citizens these requests come from refugees who are fleeing the conflict in the eastern part of ukraine in fact i personally know people who are from the ukraine who are now essentially trapped in russia because their native regions are at war with the kiev government there is a classic mainstream media talking point about russian aggression and russian imperialism which gets repeated constantly in fact so often that is not even question but if you stop to think about it if you were trapped in a region at war and you were going to escape where would you go into the heart of the aggressors imperialists no you go in the direct opposite direction interestingly enough in both this conflict and the two thousand and eight war in georgia the overwhelming majority of refugees flee towards russia excluding some sort of bizarre stockholm syndrome it seems that for people in break way republics in ukraine and georgia russia is a safe haven they often say that people vote with their feet and in the case of the most recent wars in european history it is clear whose feet are voting for whom and

no mainstream media talking points can deny that but that's just my opinion.

we've got an updated perspective on the violence in iraq from a former marine who fought there does the u.s. have any good options in the crisis plus the latest on the problems within the veterans administration then the right to keep and bear arms it's at the heart of one of the most controversial parts of the u.s. constitution and a red hot topic in american politics my go all month attorney former speechwriter for president clinton delivers a biography of the second amendment it's all next on politicking. the president a new book on the second amendment later in the show but first we'll focus on what's happening in iraq and the latest on the scandal within the veterans administration joining me to talk about this is dan caldwell

a former active duty marine who served in operation iraqi freedom he's currently the issues and legislative campaign manager for concerned veterans of america he joins us from washington dan we'll talk about the veterans administration in a moment but what's your read on what's going on in iraq. well it's an unfortunate situation and i think it's a result of a very schizo phrenic foreign policy in the middle east that we've seen during this current administration there's been very degrees of focus on iraq and on the middle east in general and there's been a really incomplete policy one minute we're drawing red lines the other minute we're talking about leading from behind we're being very aggressive in things like don't drone strikes going after al qaeda but then the next we're pulling back this is really results i think of this current administration not paying the proper attention to the growth of this group in the middle east.